1. Field of the Invention
This invention provides for oral homogeneous veterinary pastes which are used in treating, controlling and preventing of endo- and ectoparasite infections in warm-blooded animals or birds, such as horses and household pets. This invention further provides for a process of preparing these veterinary pastes and for a method for increasing the bioavailability of the anthelmintic agents contained in the paste in the warm-blooded animal or bird. The inventive oral homogeneous anthelmintic pastes comprise a first anthelmintic agent, for example, praziquantel and/or pyrantel, and at least one macrolide anthelmintic compound, a solvent, which dissolves both the first anthelmintic agent and the macrolide anthelmintic compound, and a thickening agent. The inventive oral homogeneous pastes achieve a better bioavailability of the two active anthelmintic agents in the animal than when the two actives are in suspension and not dissolved.
2. Description of the Related Art
Therapeutic agents are administered to animals by a variety of routes. These routes include, for example, oral ingestion, topical application or parental administration. The particular route selected by the practitioner depends upon factors such as the physiochemical properties of the pharmaceutical or therapeutic agent, the condition of the host, and economic factors.
For example, one method of formulating a therapeutic agent for oral, topical, dermal or subdermal administration is to formulate the therapeutic agent as a paste or as and injectable formulation and reference is made to U.S. application Ser. No. 09/504,741, filed Feb. 16, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,787,342, entitled IMPROVED PASTE FORMULATIONS or to Ser. No. 09/346,905, filed Jul. 2, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,112; Ser. No. 09/112,690, filed Jul. 9, 1999 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,888 and Ser. No. 09/152,775, filed Sep. 14, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,174,540, entitled LONG ACTING INJECTABLE FORMULATIONS CONTAINING HYDROGENATED CASTOR OIL. The disclosure of these patent applications as well as the references cited therein and the references cited herein as well as the references cited in the references are expressly incorporated by reference. Other methods include placing the therapeutic agent in a solid or liquid matrix for oral delivery.
An important area in veterinary science in the control of endo- and ectoparasites in warm-blooded animals, such as equine animals and domestic pets. Infections of parasites, including cestodes and nematodes, commonly occur in animals such as horse, donkeys, mules, zebras, dogs, cats. Various classes anthelmintic agents have been developed in the art to control these infections; see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,993,682 and 4,032,655, which disclose phenylguanidines as anthelmintic agents. Further, the art recognizes that it is advantageous to administer combinations of two or more different classes of anthelmintic agents in order to improve the spectrum of activity; see, e.g., product disclosure for RM® Parasiticide-10, an anthelmintic paste comprising febantel and praziquantel.
Macrolide anthelmintic compounds are known in the art for treating endo- and ectoparasite infections in warm-blooded animals and birds. Compounds that belong to this class of agents include the avermectin and milbemycin series of compounds. These compounds are potent antiparasitic agents against a wide range of internal and external parasites. Avermectins and milbemycins share the same common 16-membered macrocyclic lactone ring; however, milbemycins do not possess the disaccharide substituent on the 13-position of the lactone ring. In addition to treating parasitic insects, such as flies, avermectins and milbemycins are used to treat endoparasites, e.g., round worm infections, in warm-blooded animals.
The avermectin and milbemycin series of compounds either are natural products or are semi-synthetic derivatives. The natural product avermectins are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,519 to Albers-Schonberg, et al., and the 22,23-dihydro avermectin compounds are disclosed in Chabala, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,569. For a general discussion of avermectins, which include a discussion of their uses in humans and animals, see “Ivermectin and Abamectin,” W. C. Campbell, ed., Springer-Verlag, New York (1989). Naturally occurring milbemycins are described in Aoki et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,950,360 as well as in the various references cited in “The Merck Index” 12th ed., S. Budavari, Ed., Merck & Co., Inc. Whitehouse Station, New Jersey (1996). Semisynthetic derivatives of these classes of compounds are well known in the art and are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,077,308, 4,859,657, 4,963,582, 4,855,317, 4,871,719, 4,874,749, 4,427,663, 4,310,519, 4,199,569, 5,055,596, 4,973,711, 4,978,677, and 4,920,148. All these documents are herein incorporated by reference.
Avermectins and milbemycins are ineffective against cestodes, such as tapeworms, which also are a common parasite in warm-blooded animals (see, U.S. Pat. No. 6,207,179). Of particular importance in the industry is the treatment of equine tapeworms, in general, and Anoplacephala perfoliata, in particular (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,207,179 or 5,824,653). In order to treat cestode (and trematode) infections in warm-blooded animals, it is know, to administer 2-acyl-4-oxo-pyrazino-isoquinoline derivatives to the animal (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,441, herein incorporated by reference). A compound of this class that is often used to treat cestode and nematode infections is praziquantel, which has the following structure:

As mentioned above, often it is beneficial to administer a formulation that contains a combination of two or more anthelmintics, which possess different activity, in order to obtain a composition with a broad spectrum of activity. Further, the combination allows the user to administer one formulation instead of two or more different formulations to the animal. Formulations which administer a combination of two or more anthelmintics are know in the art. These formulations may be in the form of solutions, suspensions, pastes, drenches or pour-on formulations (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,987 to Harvey or U.S. Pat. No. 6,340,672 to Mihalik). For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,468,390 to Kitano and U.S. Pat. No. 5,824,653 to Beuvry et al. describe anthelmintic compositions for treating nematode and cestode infections in animals, such as horses, that comprise an avermectin or a milbemycin and an isoquinoline compounds, such as praziquantel, to the animal. In these formulations, the avermectin or milbemycin compound and the isoquinoline compound are not dissolved in a solvent, which is then dispersed in a semi-solid matrix Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,207,179 to Mihalik describes an anthelmintic paste formulations wherein the avermectin or milbemycin is dissolved in a non-aqueous liquid and pyrantel or morantel, compounds which are in the same class as praziquantel, but are said in the are to be far less effective as praziquantel, are suspended in the liquid. These prior patents do not describe a formulation wherein the both the praziquantel and the avermectin or milbemycin are dissolved in a solvent and then dispersed in a carrier matrix. U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,987 describes anthelmintic formulations containing praziquantel and at least one avermectin or milbemycin dissolved in an ester or ester-like compounds, such as glycerol formal, benzyl alcohol- and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, which may be liquids, pastes or drenches; the amount of praziquantel administered to the animal is always at a dose of more that 2.0 mg per kg of body weight. U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,987 provides for pastes which require the presence of two solvents, one for the praziquantel and one for the macrolide compound.